After a very long hiatus from the blog…we are back! We’ve been in India for three weeks now, and are feeling much more settled and comfortable with our new life. Monkeys jumping on our roof every night? No problem! Carrying Eliza on our shoulders down the mountain and through the super-busy town with no sidewalks every day? Easy as pie! But really, we are loving our new life here.
We’re living in a beautiful and spacious house in the mountains, about a 15-minute walk from McLeod Ganj, in Dharamsala, northern india, in the foothills of the Himalayas. The small town is filled with Tibetans (lots of monks and nuns dressed in beautifully simple burgundy and orange robes), Indians (tourists and local), and lots of expats, especially Israelis. This has been the home of His Holiness the Dalai Lama and the Tibetan government in exile since 1959, after the Tibetan uprising years after the Chinese invasion. Thousands of people fill the area for His Holiness’ teachings periodically throughout the year, and people to come for months at a time to study tibetan buddhism.
Nate is doing lots of important work already on his technology projects, straddling NYC and India local time which can be tough on the sleep schedule. Micaela has been putting in some hours finishing up scientific journal articles for the NYC Health Dept. and Eliza has loved spending so much time with her parents and her two new dogs who live downstairs! We’re still figuring out childcare/play dates for Eliza–we have some promising leads, so hopefully that will be resolved soon. Nate has a fabulous network of friends and colleagues here, and everyone has been so super friendly, helpful and generous.
Will post much more about our daily life soon (like, what does an Indian bathroom and kitchen look like? what are our new favorite foods? how big ARE those spiders and thousand-foot worms?), but leave you now with some pictures from our first weeks here. Oh, and amazing shots from our 2 weeks in Ireland in August are coming too…Miss everyone so much!
